If all of this annoys you so much, why don't you look for another job?" Finally one of the two young men lost his heart when the other once again poured out his heart to his buddy: about the work he didn't love in the insurance company and about the fact that his life's campaigning for sustainable energies fell by the wayside.

"Why don't you change jobs?" The aggressive question gave the business graduate the impetus to reorient himself professionally.

Today he is a university teacher and is convinced: "Uncomfortable questions are half the answer."

Nadine Bos

Editor in business, responsible for "Career and Opportunity".

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Ursula Kals

Editor in business, responsible for "Youth writes".

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If she is not provided by a well-meaning friend or far-sighted colleague, then life in the pandemic is currently hers.

Because the past two years Corona has become a kind of fire accelerator for those looking for meaning.

The professional routine is gone: home office here, hybrid meetings there, vaccination issues divide the workforce, entire industries are tormented by the standstill, others suffocate in mountains of work.

All of this smolders with existential questions - physical ones, after all, it's a potentially life-threatening pandemic.

But also economic.

When so much changes, people are more likely to dare to make further adjustments themselves.

In this context, the term “great resignation” is circulating on the internet.

The phenomenon describes an economic trend that has occurred mainly in America as a result of Corona.

Significantly more people than usual have been resigning from their jobs there voluntarily since mid-2021.

However, labor market researchers have not yet been able to determine whether this wave has spilled over to Germany, possibly because of the stronger hire-and-fire mentality on the other side of the Atlantic.

While many people there complain about the lack of support they received during the crisis, the German labor market is robust despite the Omicron wave.

Just this week, the employment agency reported that it was almost back to the pre-crisis level: while there were 2.425 million unemployed in Germany in January 2020, it was almost the same in January 2022: 2.462 million.

There are also no indications of higher fluctuation or more voluntary resignations.

Mentally many play with a change

However, there are various surveys that indicate that more people in Germany than before are toying with the idea of ​​changing jobs.

A representative survey of more than 1550 employees by the consulting firm EY came to the conclusion around the turn of the year that 48 percent, i.e. almost half, signaled a willingness to change employers;

the highest value since 2015. However, the vast majority stated that they had not yet taken any concrete steps.

A Forsa survey commissioned by the career network Xing at the beginning of 2022 also confirmed that Germans were 12 percent more willing to change jobs compared to the previous year.

Around 1,000 employees were interviewed.

But how can you find out for each individual whether the level of suffering in the old position is really great enough for a change?

Asking the right questions, even the uncomfortable ones that drive you out of your comfort zone, is a classic coaching method.

Instead of explaining to the client what he has to change in his dissatisfaction and how, intelligent questions should enable him to find tailor-made solutions himself.

This is often followed by the realization of what you can do to change a situation.

Because of course there is something to the flat saying that advice is also a beating.

This is what differentiates coaching from consulting.

Skillfully formulating questions that help others is also the non-directive principle of humanistic psychology and systemic thinking.

"There are no stupid questions, they say.

But there are awkward questions that block the way to an answer instead of smoothing it out,” says psychological psychotherapist Carmen Kindl-Beilfuss from Magdeburg.

She has written a workshop book on systemic questioning techniques.

“Because if you ask the right questions, you create movement.

Well-asked questions can tap into resources, dissolve blockages and stimulate processes.” The respondent gets to the point faster and allows himself to think bigger.